The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Calathea plant, botanically known as Calathea hybrida, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Mia’.
The new Calathea is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Bogor, Indonesia. The objective of the breeding program is to create new flowering Calathea cultivars with a plant habit appropriate for container production, desirable flowering habit and color and good postproduction longevity.
The new Calathea originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in Bogor, Indonesia in July, 1996, of an unnamed selection of Calathea loesenerii, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with the Calathea roseo picta cultivar Eclipse, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 9,621, as the male, or pollen, parent. The cultivar Mia was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Bogor, Indonesia in December, 1998.
Asexual reproduction of the new Calathea by divisions in a controlled environment in Bogor, Indonesia since April, 1999, has shown that the unique features of this new Calathea are stable and are reproduced true to type in successive generations. Asexual reproduction of the new Guzmania by tissue culture done in a laboratory in Sebring, Fla. since Spring, 2000, has also confirmed that the unique features of this new Calathea are stable and are reproduced true to type in successive generations.